In modern office work it is necessary to provide the employees with versatile information transfer connections which can transfer speech, facsimile messages, electronic mail and other data--usually in digital form. Transfer of information is needed inside an office or corresponding working environment for communication between employees, for transfer of information between branch offices of an enterprise, which offices can be in other towns or even in other countries, and for communication between the office and "outside world". In this text and all of the following text "office" stands for an environment with several users, which users "belong together", and which office physically covers a reasonably limited area. There has been a trend in the telecommunication branch toward integrated systems in which various forms of telecommunication can be controlled as one entity.
A conventional realization of an above mentioned type of office communication system comprises a company telephone exchange for providing telephone services and telephones connected to it over twisted-pair connections and a separate local area network (LAN) in which applications for advanced telecommunication services have been implemented and which has the intelligence to run them. The local network is connected to the telephone exchange using a telecommunication server (Telephony Server) which supports the traditional subscriber server architecture in which subscribers are subscribers' computers connected to the local network. For example call-, data-, facsimile-, electronic mail- and speech mail services are connected within an office utilizing the telecommunication server. In an integrated system users can also e.g. control telephone services using their computer terminals connected to the local network. The whole integrated office communication system is connected to public telephone network through the telephone exchange.
FIG. 1 presents an example of a prior known office communication system in which users' telephones TP (TelePhone) have been connected by wire connections and a local area network (LAN) has been connected over a telecommunication server TS (Tele Server) into a telephone exchange PBX (Private Branch Exchange) which is connected to a public telephone network PSTN/ISDN (PSTN, Public Switched Telephone Network, ISDN, Integrated Services Digital Network). To the local area network (LAN) have been connected on one hand servers executing various services such as data base server DBS (Data Base Server), voice server VS (Voice Server) and electrical mail server EMS (Electrical Mail Server) and on the other hand the users' computers PC (Personal Computer). It can be regarded as a problem with this kind of realization that even if a user's telephone TP and computer PC usually are on the same table next to each other separate wire connections must be laid to the user's working room for them, on one hand from the telephone exchange PBX and on the other hand from the telecommunication server TS of the LAN. Building and maintenance of two overlapping telecommunication networks naturally causes cost.
The problem of overlapping telecommunication networks is increased by portable mobile stations utilizing radio connection coming rapidly more popular. Many persons working in an office need, because of their mobile work, a mobile station and often also a portable facsimile device and/or a combined portable computer/mobile station. In order to be able to use the devices based on radio connection also inside buildings, the constructions of which attenuate radio signals, it has been suggested that mobile radio networks should be supplemented with small base stations individual for offices or even for rooms, which base stations would be connected either directly or over wired telephone network to the central systems of mobile communication network. The network of small base stations would be already a third overlapping telecommunication network within the same office, and accordingly it is clear that in a preferable solution, which the present invention is aiming at, also the arrangement supporting radio communication stations should be realized using essentially the same means and telecommunication networks than the rest of the transfer of information in the office.
A challenge of its own to telecommunication systems is issued by the fact that work is done more and more in small-office or domestic environment, which is described by the concept SOHO (Small Office, Home Office). Even here advanced office communication services are often needed and it is particularly preferable if such a flexible system is available which can be utilized even both in the office and at home. The present systems which require overlapping connections for the utilization of mobile communication services, conventional telephone services and fast data transfer services are very inflexible for working in a small- or home office. In addition to above, the following kinds of solutions connected with integrated telecommunication systems are known from prior art.
EP publication 599 632 presents a wireless local network designed to replace the present kind of wired local networks (e.g. registered trade marks Ethernet and Token Ring) by a radio transfer network which forms inside an enterprise a private cellular system designed for data transfer. A network utilizing radio connection is, however, relatively expensive to realize and it is more sensitive to interference than a local network based upon wired connections. In addition to that it requires establishing of an extra radio network in addition to previous networks.
EP publication 462 728 presents an intelligent base station controller, subordinated to which at least one radio communication system base station is operating and which is capable of connecting calls from a certain mobile station coming through the base station directly to the wired telephone network. This system, however, requires said additional base stations, which increases the cost. The system is also, alike the system presented in publication 599 632, sensitive for external (radio)interference.
If an integrated office communication system is realized utilizing traditional technique, separate wired connections must be laid into a user's working room on one hand from telephone exchange PBX (FIG. 1) and on the other hand from telecommunication server TS of local area network (LAN). Constructing and maintaining two overlapping networks naturally brings extra cost. In said solutions according to prior art a solution to this problem has not actually been striven for.